The invention relates to an electromagnetic relay having a coil body support or carrier in which a contact spring is connected to the armature to engage into a contact pocket formed with the coil body and connects cooperating and aligned contact pieces in at least one switch position.
Electromagnetic relays are already standard for many uses. The making and/or breaking capacity is improved for high currents by means of employing bridge contacts. Previously known bridge contact arrangements, however, have the disadvantage that either the terminal pins of the contact elements are disposed too close to one another so that necessary insulating gaps are lacking or that one of the contact elements has to be bent in a complicated fashion for proper adjustment. By requiring this bending process to be undertaken, there exists the danger that the contact rivet or contact surfaces will be damaged and, thus, fault-free switching is no longer guaranteed.
In previous relay constructions, it is also possible to dispose the contact elements to be connected to the bridge contact spring behind one another in the longitudinal direction of the contact spring. In this manner, a sufficiently large spacing between the contact elements can be preselected and set. However, a significant drawback in such an arrangement is that the contact pressures on the two cooperating contact elements differ, which could have undesirable results.
An object of the present invention is to provide a contact relay construction having a bridge contact arrangement formed with the fewest and simplest parts possible, yet wherein the contact pressure at all contact locations is identical. The inventive really can be designed as a bridge closer, a bridge opener, and a bridge changeover without structural change by means of a corresponding employment of contact elements.